Apparatus, method, and system for cumulative reporting of medical information

ABSTRACT

According to an exemplary embodiment, a method, system, and device for providing cumulative reporting of medical information may be provided. The method, system, and apparatus may utilize software that provides access to any of a variety of medical records and/or medical data in real time and in a manner which allows it to be interpreted and shared. The method, system, and apparatus can also allow prompt alerts based on the interpretation of data shown.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 61/951,756 filed on Mar. 12, 2014, entitled “Apparatus, Method, andSystem for Cumulative Reporting of Medical Information.” The contents ofthis application are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

Access to medical records and near-time or real-time medical data istypically difficult or impossible in most environments, often beingunavailable even to medical professionals. While most physicians,practitioners, and patients own or have access to a laptop or desktopcomputer, or own a wireless device such as a smartphone or tabletcomputer that would be capable of displaying this data, few solutionsexist to allow these parties to view, convey, share, and/or communicatemedical results. This may impede physician, practitioner, and/or patientreporting and review of any desired types of medical information,something which can often be inconvenient and which can occasionally bedetrimental to a patient's health.

Further, when access to the data is provided, it is often presented in aconfusing manner. For example, medical information about a patient maybe presented without putting it in the context of the patient's othermedical information or the statistics of the broader population. Thismay impede rapid interpretation of the data, which may result in delayedassistance being rendered to a patient. Additionally, medical recordsand data are unable to provide viewers or necessary personnel withimmediate alerts regarding the status or needs of a patient, which maylikewise result in delayed assistance to a patient when it may be mostnecessary.

Lastly, patient medical records generally do not provide indications ornotifications of when they have been or are being accessed. Thispresents potential security concerns, but also presents medicalconcerns. For example, it may be unclear when or if a patient's recordshave been accessed, which may make it unclear whether or not thatpatient is being attended to or not; this may present concerns foremergency patients who are in critical condition and who may be inimmediate need of care.

Consequently, as discussed above, the present methods and systems ofreporting medical results are in many ways deficient. Accordingly, thereis a need for new methods and systems for reporting test results thatsolves some or all of the above-described deficiencies.

SUMMARY

According to an exemplary embodiment, a computer-implemented method formanaging medical results may be provided. The method may includeproviding a device for presenting a graphical user interface to a user.The user may be a physician, practitioner, or patient. An electronicmedical records server may also be provided and the device and user maybe authenticated by the server. The device may request data from theserver, which may then transmit the data to the device. The device maydisplay the data through the graphical user interface in normalizeddecimal equivalent units. The user may be permitted to interact furtherwith the displayed data through the graphical user interface.

According to another exemplary embodiment, a device for managing anddisplaying medical results may be provided. The device may include adisplay screen, a user input interface, a process, and a memoryoptionally linked to the processor, including executable instructionsthat, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to effectuatethe following: access medical information, display the accessed medicalinformation in normalized decimal equivalent unit form through agraphical user interface on the display screen, receive user inputthrough the user input interface, and alter at least one of thegraphical user interface and the accessed medical information inresponse to the user input.

According to yet another exemplary embodiment, a system for managing anddisplaying medical results may be provided. The system may include adevice for managing and displaying medical results, as substantiallydescribed above. The system may further include an electronic medicalrecords server. The device and the server may be communicatively coupledvia a network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Advantages of embodiments of the present invention will be apparent fromthe following detailed description of the exemplary embodiments. Thefollowing detailed description should be considered in conjunction withthe accompanying figures in which:

FIG. 1 is a GUI of an exemplary embodiment of software described herein;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary depiction of a user interacting with softwaredescribed herein;

FIG. 3 is a GUI of an exemplary embodiment of software described herein;

FIG. 4 is a GUI of an exemplary embodiment of software described herein;

FIG. 5 is a GUI of an exemplary embodiment of software described herein;

FIG. 6 is a GUI of an exemplary embodiment of software described herein;

FIG. 6A is a GUI of an exemplary embodiment of software describedherein;

FIG. 7 is a GUI of an exemplary embodiment of software described herein;

FIG. 8 is a GUI of an exemplary embodiment of software described herein;

FIG. 9 is a GUI of an exemplary embodiment of software described herein;and

FIG. 10 is an exemplary diagram showing data flow associated with thesoftware described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present invention are disclosed in the followingdescription and related figures directed to specific embodiments of theinvention. Those skilled in the art will recognize that alternateembodiments may be devised without departing from the spirit or thescope of the claims. Additionally, well-known elements of exemplaryembodiments of the invention will not be described in detail or will beomitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the invention.

As used herein, the word “exemplary” means “serving as an example,instance or illustration.” The embodiments described herein are notlimiting, but rather are exemplary only. It should be understood thatthe described embodiments are not necessarily to be construed aspreferred or advantageous over other embodiments. Moreover, the terms“embodiments of the invention”, “embodiments” or “invention” do notrequire that all embodiments of the invention include the discussedfeature, advantage or mode of operation.

Further, many of the embodiments described herein may be described interms of sequences of actions to be performed by, for example, elementsof a computing device. It should be recognized by those skilled in theart that the various sequence of actions described herein can beperformed by specific circuits (e.g., application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs)) and/or by program instructions executed by at leastone processor. Additionally, the sequence of actions described hereincan be embodied entirely within any form of computer-readable storagemedium such that execution of the sequence of actions enables theprocessor to perform the functionality described herein. Thus, thevarious aspects of the present invention may be embodied in a number ofdifferent forms, all of which have been contemplated to be within thescope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of theembodiments described herein, the corresponding form of any suchembodiments may be described herein as, for example, “a computerconfigured to” perform the described action.

Generally referring to FIGS. 1-10, a method, system, and device forreporting medical results may be described. The method, system andapparatus may be embodied in any of a variety of manners, includingsoftware on a computing system (such as a laptop or desktop computer ora kiosk), a software application on a smartphone or like communicationdevice, a network accessible software application or any other manner,as desired. Additionally, this description herein may utilize aspects ofU.S. Pat. No. 8,204,713,entitled “Normalized Decimal Equivalent SystemsAnd Methods,” issued Jun. 19, 2012, the contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

Elements of U.S. Pat. No. 8,204,713 describe some exemplary aspects ofthis description in more detail. Additionally, exemplary embodimentsdescribed herein may include physician, practitioner, and/or patientinteractive software for the viewing, conveying, sharing andcommunicating of medical results. The software can include a dashboardand/or user interface for reporting any desired medical information on acomputer display station, personal computer, and mobile wireless devicesincluding handheld smartphones, tablets, and the like. It may further beappreciated that such software can be utilized on any device withdisplay and network connectivity capabilities. Exemplary embodiments ofsoftware described herein may further have graphical displays, forexample color graphical displays, and normalization of numericalinformation as described in the incorporated by reference U.S. Pat. No.8,204,713. As described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,204,713, medicalinformation may be normalized by converting raw data to a decimalequivalent scale that facilitates reporting and analyzing the data.

Further, the software can facilitate physician, practitioner, and/orpatient reporting and review of any desired types of medical informationfound in a typical medical chart (or electronic medical records system)with all results on the same normalized scale, in any desired numericaland non-numerical format. In an exemplary embodiment, the scale may be aCentiBlick Result (CBR) normalized graphic scale. A normalized graphicalinterface between a user and physician can provide data access, viewingand communication capabilities via click or touch screen functionality,as well as through any other user-device interaction, for example viastylus, mouse, voice command, or similar methods. The exemplary softwaremay further present any desired medical information in a standardhorizontal bar graph, as shown in more detail below with respect to thefigures. Such views can include vertical and horizontal scrolling andvarious identifying features such as shading, patterns, or colorgraphics; for example, abnormal or positive findings may be presented asa red bar, borderline or indeterminate findings may be presented as ayellow bar, and findings or results in the “normal range” or desiredrange of are presented as a green bar. Other colors or visualrepresentations and other data sets may also be included; for example,necropsy/autopsy reports may be presented as a blue bar. It can beappreciated that the colors used here are merely exemplary and any otherdesired color or visual indicia may be utilized to provide or conveyinformation. Alternative graphical displays, for example, vertical barsor another desired orientation may also be selected depending on theuser's preference. This may ensure that the data scales to the availabledisplay space, or can otherwise be displayed as desired. Other types ofgraphs or charts may also be utilized.

Still referring to the exemplary embodiments described herein, testresults on the same test may be stacked into a data bar graph clusterwith the most recent test being displayed on the top bar of theassociated bar graph test cluster. According to at least one embodiment,a physician (or any other party) can elect in in the softwarepreferences menu or elsewhere to have the most recent result at thebottom of the cluster, or to change the orientation or visual indicia inany desired fashion. This test cluster reporting can allow for a currenttest result shown on a top bar to be trended with previous results onthis test, for example, by viewing the bar graph cluster showingprevious results on the bars below. As one exemplary option, a physiciancan elect to have a line graph drawn tracing the displayed bar graph. Bytouching or clicking the data bar or otherwise interacting with thegraphical display, the software may access and display data in the formof a traditional medical chart (for example, laboratory, vitals, and thelike may be displayed in traditional form). Any of the following may beable to be displayed: standard, traditional reporting units, andlaboratory method (e.g., Core Lab enzymatic, Point-of-Care (POC) i-Stat,etc. along with a corresponding normalized unit); comments regarding areported result or results (for example a lab comment “hemolyzedsample”); a text report or medical image (for example a pathology reportwith a positive or negative cancer finding); a screening result (forexample urinalysis); and/or a critical result requiring a physician'sattention. Icons may be displayed on the device using the software thatmay also alert a physician that there are comments and additionaldetails; alternatively, comments may be directly displayed withoutrequiring a point and click or other selection. There may also be acritical result icon on the graphic display. Note that a physician,practitioner, and/or patient may be prompted to acknowledge that acritical result, medical report, or medical image was viewed using theabove-described access option in order to return to the originalgraphical survey display. The date and time of a physician's review ofthe data, as well as any acknowledgements, may be recorded anddisplayed. A check or other indicia may be displayed next to thecritical result flag, once viewed. Such a feature may be implementedusing data from an electronic medical record (EMR) documenting the orderentry and review loop cycle.

In still further exemplary embodiments, the system and software can alsofeature connectivity with medical records systems using HL7 standardformats (or any other desired format or formats) for informationinterchange using a push system approach for acute care critical resultsreporting and a user inquiry approach where a clinician/practitioneruser is prompted to specify the inquiry parameters regarding a specificpatient or group of patients. The push feature can send notifications toa mobile device, and may allow for stacking notifications when multiplecritical reports are sent. The physician, practitioner, and/or patientmay then touch a notification icon (or use any other access capability)to view the complete message or report.

In further exemplary embodiments, test results can be listed on ascrollable color bar graph display, for example in alphabetical order bytest/procedure or specimen name (e.g., uterus), or through any othercriteria desired. Test/report filters may be available when selectingthis option, and a physician can filter the displayed color survey bargraph into any of a variety of formats, for example organ specifictest/report panels (e.g., renal, liver, cardiovascular, uterus, etc.) inorder to facilitate the diagnosis and/or to assist in monitoring thecourse of treatment, test/report panels designed for consults in aparticular specialty area, and/or test/report panels designed forfacilitating the generation of a discharge summary or encounter summary.With regard to discharge and encounter summaries, the system canaggregate various panels and data sets, looking for trends andprogression during the course of care based on set statisticalguidelines, describe the various data events observed by the expertsoftware, and then aggregate these findings into a narrative report,along with diagnostic codes. The latter report can further includeoptions to allow the physician, practitioner, and/or patient to reviewand edit this computer generated summary.

In an exemplary embodiment, a user may access a variety of options inthe software using a double tap or any other selection technique. Forexample, a double tap of a mobile device screen displaying the softwarecan display a menu of options including Confirm, Order Tests/Procedures,Call Floor, Call Patient, Email Patient, Text Patient, Release toPatient, Return, or other similar options. Also with a double tap orother selection, a “Physician Preference” feature can be set to allowthe default laboratory results to be viewed in any of a variety offormats, for example formatted to non-CBR, non-graphically displayedresults. Using this option, laboratory results, vitals, etc. can beviewed in the traditional, legacy spreadsheet format listing traditionalvalues, units, flags, and normal/reference ranges.

Referring now to exemplary FIG. 1, a GUI of a mobile device illustratingthe display 100 of normalized laboratory results using the normalizedCBR system with the software described herein may be provided. Displayheader 101 may include, for example, the patient's name, the patient'sdate of birth, and other pertinent information; other information may bedisplayed on or beside the graph or elsewhere on the display, asdesired. Icons or other attention-grabbing items may be incorporated aspart of the display, for example to identify anomalous laboratoryresults or to identify patients in urgent need of care. Note, in thisexample, that critical results can include a “!” icon 105 and commentsattached to the result can be indicated with a message icon 110. Theuser may be able to call up more information about why these or othericons are present, for example by selecting the result bar associatedwith the icons 105, 110 via touch screen or by mousing over the resultbar, by clicking the result bar, by touching or mousing over otherresult bars 115, 120, 125 with which they are associated, or otherwisecommunicating selection information to the device. Abnormal results maybe shown with a uniquely identifying shading, color, or pattern such asthat shown in bar 115. Borderline results may be shown with a differentshading, color, or pattern, as shown in bar 120. Normal results may beshown with yet a different shading, color, or pattern, as shown in bar125. Results on the same test, such as BUN, may be stacked or aggregatedin the display; the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1 displays theseresults in a result cluster 130, with the most recent test displayed onthe topmost bar.

Exemplary FIG. 2 provides a mobile device showing a display 100 similarto that of FIG. 1. A user of the software, such as a physician,practitioner, and/or patient, may select one of the graph elements, suchas bar 115 shown in FIG. 2, to gain access to additional data about thetest that the bar 115 corresponds to. For example, touching or clickingthe bar 115 may allow the user to view a comment attached to a result,identify why a result has been flagged with a warning icon for criticalresults, or view the traditional reporting units and normal ranges forthe test in question.

Also, as represented in FIG. 2, the display 100 may provide forcumulative reporting, showing progression from previous tests to morerecent tests. This may be shown by multiple graph elements. In exemplaryFIG. 2, a series of graph elements may be shown for each test,progressing in chronological with the most recent appearing at the top.In exemplary FIG. 2, the patient may show a high BUN and Creatininelevel during an earlier test, indicating a critical situation such asrenal failure, but as indicated by the progression of the tests, thepatient may be shown to be trending toward normal values. The reportingshowing the progression of various tests may be in the form of labclusters, such as a BUN cluster. Each test may be represented in acluster of graph elements showing a patient's progression. In anexemplary embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the most recent results ofeach cluster may appear at the top of the cluster.

Exemplary FIG. 3 provides a GUI showing an access view 305 oftraditional laboratory results, such as might be displayed when bar 115in exemplary FIG. 2 is clicked, touched, or otherwise accessed. Theexemplary embodiment of FIG. 3 shows the traditional result of 141 mg/dLalong with the normalized CBR of 671 cb. This screen 305 may also showother information about the test, such as which laboratory the test wasperformed in, along with unique normal ranges associated with the methodin that laboratory. Access view 305 may display the comments associatedwith the red bar 115 if any are available; for example, the commentattached to the result displayed in FIG. 3 documents that this highresult is critical for the patient and therefore the result was calledto an attending physician. According to the exemplary embodiment of theaccess screen 305 displayed in FIG. 3, the physician, practitioner,and/or patient must select confirmation button 310 or otherwise confirmthat they viewed this critical result. The mobile device can log thedate, time and the identity of the physician, practitioner, and/orpatient confirming this critical result on the device and may alsoappend a green check icon (or other indicia) next to shown icons.

Certain tests may also be given a higher or lower priority or may bereceived differently by the device; for example, the result shown inFIG. 3 was critical for the patient and as a result may be “pushed” toan attending physician and shown as a notification on the mobile device.This latter feature may be particularly beneficial for personnelassociated with an emergency department, as they may be caring formultiple critical patients at the same time, and may need lifesavingvitals and laboratory data of a critical nature in real-time for thosepatients. The software on the device may also be set to alert anattending physician or practitioner of this critical result alertmessage by, for example, sending a notification to the physician's pageror other mobile device.

The software may have additional functionality other than merelydisplaying the results. For example a physician, practitioner, and/orpatient, after instructing the software to display the critical resultson an access screen 305 or otherwise, may be given other options, suchas prompts to order another test or procedure, call the floor orpatient, email or text another practitioner or the patient, and/orforward the result to the patient. Similar results and other options maybe available from the home display screen 100 or may be otherwiseavailable. The physician may also be able to select an option indicatingthat they viewed the entire screen of transmitted data. Data that hasbeen previously viewed may have this indicated on the home displayscreen 100 by an alteration of the display or other indication. Forexample, previously viewed and confirmed data on a cumulative stackedbar report may shade the previously viewed bars with a darker shade thanthe new and unconfirmed CBR bar on the top of the data cluster. Thisfunction may be dependent on verification order review loop data fromthe EMR order entry system. Alternatively, any other manner of markingpreviously viewed bars may be utilized, as desired.

Exemplary FIG. 4 provides a GUI showing an overflow screen 400,corresponding to the data displayed in FIGS. 1 and 2. The overflowscreen 400 features the BUN red bar 115 displayed in those two figures;the bar 115 corresponds to a value greater than 200% of maximum, whichmay make it unreadable on an unaltered display as in FIGS. 1 & 2. Thisexemplary view may be obtained by swiping the screen with a right toleft motion, by using another common scroll-to-the-right feature, or byusing any other access capability, as desired. According to someembodiments, CBR normalized scales may be able to be adjusted eitherinstead of or in addition to the use of a scroll-to-the-right feature;for example, a user may be able to zoom in and out of the CBR normalizeddisplay featured in FIG. 2. As shown in exemplary FIG. 3, and accordingto some embodiments, the physician, practitioner, and/or patient canview results at any time from a pick list of stored results on thedevice, if desired. Likewise, according to some embodiments, a user maybe able to return to the original CBR screen shown in exemplary FIG. 3by swiping with a left-to-right motion, or by taking other action, asdesired.

Exemplary FIG. 5 provides a GUI showing an exemplary inquiry screen 500where a physician, practitioner, and/or patient can “pull” or retrieveresults from a medical database based on patient identifiers in aHIPPA-compliant manner. Various filtering options can be included; forexample, a filter may allow a user to search for a patient based on adate range corresponding to the patient's last visit to a physician, ormay allow search filtering based on any other factor, as desired. Thismay allow current results to be displayed graphically as in exemplaryFIG. 1, and, in the context of previous results, may allow trends inresults to be readily observed by a user. Where applicable, trends mayalso be identified by the software, either automatically or following anidentification procedure that a user may execute, as desired. Criticalresults requiring action may also be readily identified, eitherautomatically by the software or by the action of the physician,practitioner, and/or patient. An embodiment of this device may beconfigured particularly for patients, to reflect the fact that patientsmay now legally order and receive selected laboratory results inreal-time from select commercial laboratories (e.g., LabCorp, Quest);such an embodiment may report test results in a readily interpretable,intuitive manner. Alerts and comments may also be presented in a fashionthat may be interpreted directly by patients; for example, apatient-oriented embodiment may use different or less professionallanguage, or may provide recommendations to the patient about theirsuggested future conduct. This may provide patients with moreresponsibility for their own individual care and health monitoring. Suchalerts could, for example, notify patients to go immediately to theemergency department (i.e., a critically low potassium, high INR, etc.)or, for less critical test results, contact their physician for anappointment.

According to an alternative exemplary embodiment of the inquiry screenshown in FIG. 5, laboratory results, vitals, images, pathology reports,and the like may be listed as a line item when a name or identifier isentered on the screen or otherwise searched for. All specimen resultsmay be listed and selectable, or, alternatively, if a user searches foror identifies a particular visit (such as by inputting a visit numberinto the appropriate search prompt), all specimen results for that visitmay be listed and selectable. Some or all results may be able to beselected, grouped, and displayed on the screen shown in exemplary FIG.2. Data regarding individual visits may also be displayed and selectedin its entirety, with laboratory data, vitals, etc. corresponding tothat visit displayed for review on a screen similar to that shown inexemplary FIG. 2. Also, multiple visits or encounters with the patientcan be grouped and displayed on a screen similar to exemplary FIG. 2,which may allow trending of results across visits or other usefulinterpretation of the data. Also, if desired, laboratory data, reports,etc. can be stored on the device, for example in a local cache, to allowfor quick retrieval and so that results review and trending of resultscan occur on the local database. Locally stored test results may bereviewed by a patient or physician using the device. The user of thedevice may select a visit test item from a sequential list of stored labresults, which were previously transmitted to the device.

Exemplary FIG. 6 provides a GUI 600 showing the ability of the user totrigger various pre-programmed filters to the data. Specifically,exemplary FIG. 6 shows an “anemia filter;” which may be selected oremployed to display test results that may be relevant to making adiagnosis of anemia. This may include, for example, test results from acomplete blood count (CBC) along with some selected vitals. As inprevious examples, the HCT, HgB and RBC, which are all below normallevels in this instance, may all be reported with red bars 610indicating low or below normal results. Other test results may also bereported as in previous embodiments. A menu, such as a drop-down menu605, may also be available to users; this may allow those users tosearch for specific tests (either within a currently filtered set or fora certain patient in general), and to consult filters, and may enablesoftware support for constructing written narrative consults based onpractice specialty when appropriate. Another feature available from themenu 605 may be a discharge summary support facilitating a CBR drivenchart review feature, which may note abnormal results, trends duringcare, procedure and diagnostic coding support, and written narrativesupport based on expert systems software and statistics. Pre-programmedfilters may be accessed and modified through this menu, such as via thesettings option; other functionality may also be included, such asgeneral device or software settings. Filtered data may also be furtherfiltered, for example to show only problematic test results or testresults lower or higher than optimal; FIG. 6A provides an additionalexemplary GUI showing this functionality. In FIG. 6A, the filtered testresults displayed in FIG. 6 have been further filtered using a“hematology” filter, which may be shown in FIG. 7, to only show thosetest results with values below the normal lower bounds for thepopulation and consistent with anemia, which may be used as the basisfor a diagnosis or a treatment regimen.

Exemplary FIG. 7 provides a GUI 700 showing a selection of test results,vitals, and the like. FIG. 7 displays a drop-down menu 705 displayingvarious filters that may be applied to the data to show only those testresults relevant to certain lab sections, certain potential diagnoses,or as desired. In this instance, drop-down menu 705 shows that the “All”option has been selected, which may cause the device to display all testresults available for the patient in question (herein identified as“Jane Doe”), in alphabetical order or according to anotherorganizational schema. A user may be able to select an alternativefilter, such as “Vitals” or “Chem,” to show a different selection oftest results. Other exemplary filters may include blood pressure andheart rate. Preprogrammed pull down filters may be touched, clicked, orselected as desired, and the various views of the medical data can bedisplayed in the CBR stacked graphical bar format, or any other format,as desired. Data views may be pre-generated and stored or may begenerated and displayed in real time. According to an exemplaryembodiment, all laboratory data may be presented in normalized dataclusters by test name regardless of the laboratory or method used togenerate the result. For example, by touching or clicking the “Cardio”filter option, various cardiac specific tests (CPK, CK-MB, troponin-I,etc.) along with vitals can be immediately shown to the physician orpractitioner.

Exemplary FIG. 8 provides a GUI 800 which may show how results ofnon-numeric laboratory tests and studies in anatomic pathology may bereported graphically as part of the overall normalized CBR system. Testswith, for example, a binary “true/false” or “positive/negative” resultmay be reported by using bars similar to those used for the numericlaboratory tests; however, bars for non-numeric tests may use differentmethodology. For example, bars for non-numeric tests 805, 810 may havefixed lengths corresponding to a positive and negative result, adifferent graphical representation, or a different or reversed colorscheme that may serve to more clearly identify the displayed result asrepresenting a binary test. As shown at the bottom of the screen, anegative urinalysis report with a green bar 805 of fixed length −100%extending to the (−1) left side of the screen is reported while a redbar 810 of fixed length +100% indicating a positive (+1) result wasobserved for a uterus specimen in this example, the latter beingdissected in surgical pathology as part of a complete hysterectomy case.Further access with respect to these bars can allow the physician orpractitioner to review the entire report. Note that, in the exemplaryembodiment displayed in FIG. 8, the “All” option 815 is selected, whichmay display all test and pathology results for a given patient inalphabetical order; as in previous embodiments, other filters may alsobe selected. Images can also be listed in the CBR system; these caninclude, for example, gross pathology or microscopic tissue micrographimages. Radiographic images can also be accessible using the CBRapproach, and, as in the previous example, may be presented withpositive findings shown as bars 810 to the +1 right side and negativefindings as bars 805 to the −1 left side. These bars may be furtherdistinguished by colors or other identifying aspects. Note that,according to the displayed embodiment, the message icon next to theurinalysis and uterus reports indicates that a pull down report isavailable for review with confirmation required on the uterus drill downreport.

Exemplary FIG. 9 provides a GUI 900 showing a report corresponding tothe urinalysis test of exemplary FIG. 8, identified as a bar in the −1direction in that example. Such a report may be displayed if a usertouches or clicks the visual representation of the urinalysis test (suchas the result bar of the previous example). In some alternativeembodiments, the alert icon may be selected. The report may be accessedin other manners as would be understood by a person of ordinary skill inthe art.

Exemplary FIG. 10 is an illustration of a type of communication betweena mobile device and software running thereon 1005, the electronicmedical record server (EMR) 1010, and the cloud 1015, all in a HIPPAcompliant network for secure information interchange. Mobile device 1005may be required to pass a device ID to the EMR server 1010 before datamay be interchanged, directly or indirectly, between the EMR server 1010and the device 1005. Other proper project and device identifications maybe required to be in place before medical information from the EMR 1010may be sent to the device 1005 or before the EMR server 1010 will acceptcommands from the device 1005. Other restrictions may also be put inplace; for example, devices 1005 may only be able to access the networkfrom certain locations, or may not be able to run other softwareconcurrently. Data may be stored on the cloud 1015, on the EMR server1010, on a website database, and/or locally on the device 1005, asdesired. A plurality of any of these elements may be incorporated intothe same network; for example, the network may support a plurality ofdevices 1005, a plurality of cloud providers 1015, websites and websiteportals, and/or an EMR server cluster 1010. In an exemplary embodimentutilizing a website database, the database may be a web based PHPdatabase with the medical information stored as an HL7 formattedmessage. A patient name and other unique identifiers, such as medicalrecords number, social security number, telephone number, or other knownunique identifiers, may be used as key fields to allow a device toidentify and retrieve records through a patient portal. The records maybe individual records or records of multiple encounters with a patient.In such an embodiment, the EMR server may automatically send patientdata to the web database, allowing patients and physicians to pull dataas desired, such as through a pull interface feature. This may reducethe time for retrieving desired data, by eliminating the need to go backto an EMR server.

Transfers of medical information may follow the HL7 approved standardsfor medical information interchange, or an alternative applicablestandard. Transfers may incorporate communication elements such as theinternet, the public switched telephone network (PSTN), other public andprivate networks, cellular links, satellite links, or any othercommunication channels desired. Communications may take place on thesame network or may incorporate a plurality of networks; for example,different data transfers between devices may take place over differentnetworks. Alternatively, certain devices may be able to transfer dataover a plurality of networks in case one experiences a failure.

The foregoing description and accompanying figures illustrate theprinciples, preferred embodiments and modes of operation of theinvention. However, the invention should not be construed as beinglimited to the particular embodiments discussed above. Additionalvariations of the embodiments discussed above will be appreciated bythose skilled in the art.

Therefore, the above-described embodiments should be regarded asillustrative rather than restrictive. Accordingly, it should beappreciated that variations to those embodiments can be made by thoseskilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention asdefined by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for managingmedical results, comprising: providing a device configured to present agraphical user interface (GUI) to a user, the user comprising aphysician, practitioner, or patient; providing an electronic medicalrecords (EMR) server; authenticating the device and user with the EMRserver; allowing the device to request data from the EMR server;transmitting a data set comprising medical information from the EMRserver to the device; displaying the transmitted medical informationthrough a GUI on the device, the medical information being presented innormalized decimal equivalent units; and allowing user interaction withthe displayed medical information through the GUI.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the EMR server is a web based patient database.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising identifying a subset of thetransmitted medical information as a critical result and transmittingthis information to another device.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinthe displayed GUI includes at least one icon associated with a subset ofthe transmitted medical information and which indicates at least one ofthe presence of a comment, the presence of additional information, or analert.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUI displays at least aportion of the transmitted medical information in graphical form.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein a subset of the displayed medical informationcomprising medical test results is displayed in the form of a bar graph,and wherein elements of the bar graph are depicted differently toindicate medical test results that are within a normal range, close tothe boundaries of normal range, or outside of normal range.
 7. Themethod of claim 5, wherein a subset of the displayed medical informationcomprising medical test results is displayed in the form of a bar graph,and wherein elements of the bar graph are depicted differently toindicate medical test results that are positive or negative.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the GUI element displays at least one medicaltest result and wherein additional medical information related to the atleast one medical test result is displayed in response to userinteraction with the at least one medical test result displayed on theGUI.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the additional medicalinformation comprises raw, non-normalized data, comments about a test, anormalized result, a method of analysis, and a facility where a test wasperformed.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the device transmits tothe EMR server at least one of the date, the time, the identity of theparty currently associated with the device, and at least one medicalrecord.
 11. A device for managing and displaying medical results,comprising: a display screen; a user input interface; a processor; and amemory operationally linked to the processor, the memory comprisingexecutable instructions that when executed by the processor cause theprocessor to effectuate operations comprising: accessing medicalinformation; displaying accessed medical information in normalizeddecimal equivalent unit form on a graphical user interface (GUI)displayed on the display screen; receiving user input from the userinput interface; and altering at least one of the GUI and the accessedmedical information in response to the user input.
 12. The device ofclaim 11, wherein the memory additionally comprises instructions forreviewing the accessed medical information, determining whether acritical alert message should be communicated, and, if so, communicatinga critical alert message.
 13. The device of claim 11, wherein thedisplayed GUI element includes at least one icon which is associatedwith a subset of the transmitted medical information and which indicatesat least one of the presence of a comment, the presence of additionalinformation, or an alert.
 14. The device of claim 11, wherein a subsetof the displayed medical information comprising medical test results isdisplayed in the form of a bar graph, and wherein elements of the bargraph are shaded in different colors to indicate medical test resultsthat are at least one of within a normal range, close to the boundariesof a normal range, outside of a normal range, a positive result, or anegative result.
 15. The device of claim 11, wherein the GUI elementdisplays at least one medical test result and wherein additional medicalinformation is displayed by the GUI in response to a user interactingwith a part of the GUI display corresponding to that medical testresult.
 16. The device of claim 15, wherein the additional medicalinformation comprises the test result decimal equivalent units.
 17. Thedevice of claim 11, wherein the GUI element includes one or more filtersthat prevent a subset of the accessed medical information from beingdisplayed by the GUI element.
 18. A system for managing and displayingmedical results, comprising: a device for managing and displayingmedical results, comprising a display screen, a user input interface, aprocessor, and a memory operationally linked to the processor, thememory comprising executable instructions that when executed by theprocessor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprisingaccessing medical information, displaying accessed medical informationin normalized decimal equivalent unit form on a graphical user interface(GUI) displayed on the display screen, receiving user input from theuser input interface, and altering at least one of the GUI and theaccessed medical information in response to the user input; and an EMRserver; wherein the device and EMR server are communicatively coupledvia a network.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the device isconfigured to transmit a request for additional medical information tothe EMR server in response to a user input.
 20. The system of claim 18,wherein the device receives user input and transmits to the EMR serverat least one of the date, the time, the identity of the party currentlyassociated with the CBR device, and at least one medical record, andwherein this information is stored on the EMR server.
 21. The system ofclaim 18, wherein a subset of the displayed medical informationcomprising medical test results is displayed in the form of a bar graph,and wherein elements of the bar graph are depicted with differing visualgraphics to indicate medical test results that are at least one of:within a normal range, close to the boundaries of normal range, outsideof normal range, a positive result, or a negative result.
 22. The systemof claim 18, wherein the medical results are stored locally on thedevice and are accessible by selecting from a list of the storedresults.